Forensic Scientist

Forensic Scientist

LIsa Black

Cape Coral, FL

Female, 49

I spent the five happiest years of my life in a morgue. As a forensic scientist in the Cleveland coroner’s office I analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. Now I'm a certified latent print examiner and CSI for a police department in Florida. I also write a series of forensic suspense novels, turning the day job into fiction. My books have been translated into six languages.

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Last Answer on July 21, 2022

Best Rated

I need to know how can I get blood group from old dried blood?

Asked by Mou about 5 years ago

They used to do that in serology, taking threads soaked in the blood and putting them in tiny pools of blood type reagents. I don’t know exactly what the reagents were, sorry, that had never been part of my duties. But if you research old serological techniques you should find it.

Best of luck!

How reliable are drug tests? The ones that turn colors. I seen where a dude had doughnut glaze on the ground and it tested positive (no thats not a joke lol).

Asked by Darren almost 5 years ago

I'm sorry but I've never worked in toxicology, so I've never tested drugs with any kind of test.

Sorry I can't help!

How often do homeless people intentionally try to get arrested? I heard they do this because the shelters won’t take them if they are on drugs among other things so they commit crimes in front of cops to have a place to sleep

Asked by How often do homeless people intentionally try to get arrested? I heard they do this because the shelters won’t take them if they are on drugs among other things so they commit crimes in front of cops to have a place to sleep almost 5 years ago

I wouldn't be involved with cases like this so I don't know. In my experience with homeless camps the people are usually not too cooperative and don't want to leave, so I haven't seen this happen.

How can we detect the GHB from urine sample by LCMS?
Is there any simple method?

Asked by Eman about 5 years ago

I’m sorry but I’ve never worked in toxicology. Sorry I couldn’t help!

Biggest pet peeve out of co workers? I also heard working at police and sherif departments your lunch is always stolen is this true?

Asked by Mike over 5 years ago

That's never happened to me at the police department, but then there's only my forensic unit with access to our refrigerator so it's not a problem. But it used to happen in the lunch room at the coroner's office all the time! I injected candy with hot sauce once. That stopped it for about a week.

Hello, what would you do if your boss came in and asked you to test a vile of a COVID-19 vaccine for a possible crime but you did not know what it was however you did know it was a death investigation. What would you do? Thanks!!!

Asked by Mikey over 4 years ago

My lab doesn’t have the ability to test vials of any time. We would send any liquid samples to the state lab.

Is there anyone who you have known do this job because it looked good on TV? How did it go for him or her?

Asked by Bart over 5 years ago

Probably everyone gets interested in the field because it looked interesting in a TV show. But by the time you’re sufficiently trained to actually get a job, you’d know that it’s not like TV.